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Ancient Platter Recovered

A pure gold platter on which ancient Sicilians once offered food to Greek gods was returned to the Italian authorities yesterday, concluding a 16-year odyssey.

The phiale, a foot-wide platter inscribed in Greek, dates from the fifth century B.C., when Sicily was ruled by Greece. It was excavated illegally near Palermo around 1984 and smuggled out of the country. A five-year investigation led to its return at a news conference at the United States Customhouse in Manhattan.

The phiale was sold to a Sicilian collector, spirited away to a dealer in Switzerland, then sold to a Manhattan collector for about $1.2 million.